Brace yourselves for a thrill-packed seven days at blockbuster.co.uk as we deliver not one but two awesome action exclusives: brutally brilliant bone-snapper The Raid and crafty, cool crime-thriller How I Spent My Summer Vacation. The icing on the cake this week is outrageous fantasy adventure The Hunger Games, while connoisseurs of both bloody horror and gratuitous nudity are in for a double dose of fun as Piranha 3DD is unleashed upon the home cinema crowd. Read on!
Much like Ron Burgundy after rashly leaping into the bear pit to rescue fair maiden Veronica towards the end of Anchorman, the Indonesian SWAT team storming a heavily fortified hive of scum and villainy in The Raid immediately regret their decision. They’re there to bust drug lord Tama (Ray Sahetapy), the master of a derelict housing block teeming with murderous scumbags. Authorised, or so they think, to err on the side of excessive lethality, the forces of relative good are quickly overpowered by the forces of abject evil, leaving lone hero, expectant father, rookie cop and silat master Jaka (Joe Taslim) to save the day and also himself, John McClane-style.
Confronted by a never-ending horde of gun-toting, machete-wielding, slap-happy psychopaths, Jaka skips from balletic fight to kinetic battle with the skill of a young Bruce Lee, the charisma of a young Chuck Norris and the tireless speed of a coked-up cheetah. Visceral, violent and intense, The Raid pays tribute to actioners past while setting the bar slightly higher for chop socky flicks to come. Gorily authentic and breathlessly relentless with plenty of gasp-worthy stabbings, snappings and point blank shootings, it’s a blood-soaked bastard of a film. From a Welsh director no less! Thanks then, Gareth Huw Evans. Very well done. Now, more please! Rent it now on Blu-ray and DVD, in store and online, exclusively from blockbuster.co.uk.
How I Spent My Summer Vacation
Given the disgraced star’s toxic public persona, it’s perhaps no surprise that Mel Gibson’s latest attempt to revive his flagging fortunes, Get the Gringo, skipped its U.S. cinema release and premiered straight to DVD. What with Gibson’s rampant misogyny and anti-Semitism I can’t say I’m too bothered for him, but certainly director Adrian Grunberg deserved a fairer shake as the movie, retitled How I Spent My Summer Vacation for its UK release, is actually a very spirited, darkly funny and exciting, crime-themed actioner. Largely set in a tough Mexican prison that’s more a lawless town, the movie features a pleasingly Martin Riggs-like performance from Gibson and is surprisingly good. Rent it now on Blu-ray and DVD, in store and online, exclusively from blockbuster.co.uk.
A teen-themed, sci fi smashing together of The Running Man, Battle Royale and TV’s Big Brother, this first, eagerly-anticipated feature adaptation of Suzanne Collins’ best-selling book series stars Jennifer Lawrence as a capable, strong-willed and principled pauper who defies the will of a heartless, vengeful dictatorship that forces kids to fight to the death. Well done director and co-writer Gary Ross for his colourful and against-all-odds authentic creation of an exotic, scary, strange new world, also for focusing as much on character as he did pace, plot and action. A fine, fun romp for teens and their olds, it’s a dramatic, exciting spectacle and we really can’t wait now till movie number two. May the odds, as they say, be ever in your favour. Buy or rent it now on Blu-ray and DVD, in store and online from blockbuster.co.uk.
A film so wildly, gorily, crazily over-the-top mental, it makes the 2010 original seem like a posh period drama, Piranha 3DD sees the toothsome troublemakers of the title set course for a newly opened waterpark. A manically mindless collision of blood, boobs and bonkers comedy horror, it’s a giddy guilty pleasure starring David Hasselhoff as himself. Buy or rent it now on Blu-ray and DVD, in store and online from blockbuster.co.uk.
Sofia
Finally this week, Christian Slater takes the lead in this cracking action thriller about a former FBI guy on the trail of rogue vigilante who might just be his belly dancing girlfriend. Co-starring Donald Sutherland and Timothy Spall, it’s spicy, explosive fun. Buy or rent it now on Blu-ray and DVD, in store or online from blockbuster.co.uk.
